RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 22] Echoes of the Past

Space / Scout::

Aikiko blinks at what she just heard as she moved on to the next piece of salvage. She jumped off the ship and maneuvered her way back to the Eucharis. Momentary heading in the wrong direction till she gotten her bearings.

She spotted the Eucharis way off in the distance, looking like a toy silhouetted against a much farther planet in the system. She sighed as it was going to be a very long trip. Then a piece of debris had blocked her view. She sallied forth, dodging the debris and getting it moving towards the Gas Giant, those that were marked as garbage from the update from the Eucharis. She quickly checked to see to make sure her assigned salvage was taken secured to her Mindy.

Torture Facility Wreckage

It was sick. A slurry of powdered meat-ice and frozen green caterpillar husks crunched underfoot, as Tsuguka entered the actual... processing room. She had done her best to touch the floor as little as possible so far, but this was the room that they had seen from the outside, sealed away from the red glow of the parent star by a birdcage of twisted support girders, curved around to conform with a now non-existent main hull section. The entire thing was crumpled inward now, probably from the explosion that destroyed the vessel, and she had to duck through the waist-high doorway just to get inside.

Six tables, three and a half occupied. She did her best to ignore the body bags already swinging around her torso like bolas. The lack of gravity wasn't exactly helping in that regard.

An aether sabre made cutting the chains that restrained the victims easy enough, through. Thank the empress for small victories.

Space-Eucharis-Cargo bay

After an half an hour of weaving her way through the debri field and sending the marked garbage towards the Gas Giant, Aikiko finaly cleared the edge of the Debri Field. She moved on towing her gathered salvage, heading towards the Eucharis.

She relaxed as she kept up her vigilance for any nasty suprises. She made sure her Manipulator arms were stowed and lock in place. Moving to align herself up with the open cargo bay, she unfastened the big ball of uniforms, personal undergarments, clothing, and enemy uniforms.

Once that was free, she gave the ball of clothing a shove towards the open bay. "Alert Alert. More salvage incoming," to the Eucharis on all tactical frequencies. She gave everyone heads up for the big ball of cloth heading in towards the open cargo bay.

Once that was on it way safely. She towed the impromtu cargo strap netting full of easily manageable components that transends time. If it was not usable, then it could be recycled for the Frabricators. She worked it in till it sat just inside the cargo bay off to one side; out of everyones way. She stepped inside the bay through air containment field onto cargo deck floor. She unfastened her helmet once it wa safe to do so.

She covered a yawn as the adrenaline high wore off. She relaxed looking over those in the cargo bay was busy. She walked over to a power recharge system for the Mindy and hooked up it up, before powering down her Mindy to standby mode.

The salvage operation was proceeding nicely. It looked like the items on their priority list were all in transit and the map of the facility was nearly covered - which was probably for the best, given the elevated stress levels the team had been experiencing. Their bodies might be built for war, but that didn't mean they were immune to the effects of the ongoing chemical rush their minds were triggering. Tankyusha idly wondered if the ship's medic was experienced in psychology. He started to check the crew dossier, but decided to leave it as a surprise.

The salvage was still proceeding uneventfully, so he started prepping for next steps. "Away team," came the always-even voice of the science specialist, "I'm now sending over a suggested trajectory for disposing of the facility. It doesn't appear to have any correctional mechanisms, so a sufficient shove from the outside should be enough to break it from geosynchronous orbit." It would also send the person shoving in the opposite direction, but he trusted the nekos to manage that.

Bridge

Hanako watched Tankyusha in action, observing his taking initiative and being helpful. I like this scientist, she thought to herself. She left herself a note to remember this when it came time to start promoting people. As the salvage operation continued, she took control of the main screen and zoomed in on the couple of mangled rooms that made of the torture facility remains. From the ship were able to see the outline of the armored soldiers ferrying out the last of the loaded bodybags.

Hanako got on the team channel once more. "Away team this is Eucharis, when you are finished, please meet back at the Eucharis. Once everyone returns to the ship, we will regroup and investigate the scout ship, followed by the other items of interest in the system. We have found a crashed starship and a possible alien artifact we should check out before we leave the system."

The Shosho also used the ship's intercom. "Attention Hisoka-Hei, please call the the bridge."

Eucharis Cargo Bay

Aikiko gave a sigh at hearing the instruction from Shosho. She could unplug and move back to the P.A. Bay for a quick break. She glanced at the recharge meter and it was at 97% recharged. She was comfortable where she was at. She stayed there in her Mindy. Tsuguka knew where she was at and everyone else did to.

Somewhere on the Eucharis

"This is Hisoka, Shosho." She responded as she turned around in a corridor. "I apologize for my absence, but I seem to have gotten mixed up somewhere and got myself a little lost." She admitted. "This is a bit larger then my old ship, you see."

Bridge

Hanako answered the phone quickly. "Go to the cargo bay and debrief Santô Hei Akiashiro Aikiko. She has been reported as acting strangely. You should also have the medic scan her. Our medic is the in the cargo bay, too. Also, the ship computer can guide you if you need directions. Out." Hanako hung up the phone.

"Natsumi, I want to dock with the scout ship. Can you do that?" Hanako asked.

Bridge

Sitting there Antonia kept the target locks live, but kept her attention more on the target closer to the away team. This all was about as exciting as it ever got on her other ship. Maybe if she got lucky something out there would get frisky and attack the team. 'Then I'll have reason to kick some ass...'

Instead of allow herself look bored, tony set about opening a text message window to Natsumi.

Bridge

Natsumi glanced back at Shosho Hanako, thdn back at her scanners, examining the derelict scout ship.

"Yeah, I can dock us with that, no problem Shosho" She replied.

She blinked as the text window winked up on her panel and read it's contents. Demon girl? She frowned a little. Kitty-cans? Their new Nepleslian shipmate had some colorful language. Natsumi opened up and response window and input her reply.


Note typed, she sent the response and went back to calculating her approach vector to the scout ship. She had the computer target lock the main airlock and tract its movement. As well she had the scanners start plugging in the motion and reletive location of all other junk floating around too.

Torture Facility Wreckage

Mio was indeed nearly done with her part of the wreckage, having collected a couple more hands to stuff into her body bag. As she brought her plasma rifle to bear on the last corpse, vaporizing it and its potentially hazardous cargo, she lets out a soft sigh into her gore-stained helmet before activating the team's communication channel. "Clear on my end, Tsuguka-Hei. That's the last sample retrieved. You about done? I can't get off this hulk quick enough."

With her rifle in one hand, bag in the other, Mio began to float back down the hallway to Tsuguka's position. It'd be safer, and far more tactically prudent, for the two to return to the Eucharis together, rather than separately.

Torture Facility Wreckage

" I have seven." Tsuguka responded, simply. It was probably for the best that the sounds didn't carry over, since the bodies that she was dealing with weren't exactly lying down straight... She had to snap a limb off here and there just to get them inside of a bag. Simply leaving the bag open was neither practical or safe, but not all that respectful in itself. Silently, she cursed her own unwillingness to simply vaporize every corpse she came across, but with a twisted irony, those that were in more horrific conditions were also the ones that more clearly not infested by the parasites. It would be wrong just to gas them because it was easier for her to manage. "...Eight found. I think that was the last one, Nunagawa-Hei."

Ducking back under the ruined bulkhead, she gave the approaching armored form of Mio a long and hard stare, as if not even trusting that so easily. When she could confirm who it was, it was met with the strange realization that she still hadn't seen the woman's face. The two silvery armored figures, both completely shrouded in bags of severed limbs and smeared with black and red, would not meet on these exact terms again. Neither of them would likely want to remember it. Would they even want to be friends, with a first encounter like this, lurking at the back of their minds?...

The crimson neko just shook the stray thoughts free of her head, and angled it back onto the mission at hand.

"Vonderbrink-Hei must have been slowed down by the debris field." She looked up, then back down to her slightly shorter comrade. "Let's just go. It's over."

"Eucharis actual, we are vacating the facility now. The cleanup operation has been completed. I apologize for the delay." The standard, serious, hard tone. It didn't matter what the vitals said. She had not broken. Neither of them had. "Thank you for the de-orbiting data, Santo Hei Tankyusha. We are putting it into use now."

Immediately, Tsuguka got into position to start nudging the large facility away, and the both of them began to seal the fate of the miserable little chunk of hell once and for all.

The wreckage drifted towards the gas giant, its eddies and storms gaping wide, ready to receive their guest. Gravity embraced the facility's remnants and slowly brought it to a comfortable 24.79 m/s^2. The fire that erupted around its shrinking form as it hit atmosphere was beautiful in its own way, all flames licking the heavens and halos of light. A stark contrast to the scenes the team had been exposed to only moments before. Tankyusha waited patiently before saying anything, wondering if the two nekos might find some small form of closure in the act.

"Away team," he started. He paused, glancing over at the crew data. It looked stable now. Well, well. "Nicely done. Vonderbrink-Hei is on approach to your position. You may wish to rendezvous with her before returning."

He'd leave it to the captain to let them know they'd be going back out soon. No reason to spoil their trip back.

Cargo Bay / Eucharis::

Aikiko looked around as she waited for her Mindy to recharge. She spotted the tiny NH medic lending a hand to the Logistics Officer. She glanced at the gauges inside her Mindy and seeing gauge read 100% recharged. She unplugged the recharger and stored the cables away. Moving out into the bay proper, avoiding the work in progress. She approached the Eucgaris's Tiny Medic.

She had her helmet attached her Mindy's helmet hook. "Heyas Santo-Hei," Looking at the tiny medic. "I was sent in for another check up, by Tsuguko Santo-Hei. Medic." Aikiko spoke respectfully, keeping her voice soft being unsure how the tiny medic would react to using normal tone.

Random Corridor > Cargo Bay

"Understood Shosho." Hisoka responded as she got the computer to over lay some arrows to the hanger. Which she eventually arrived she noticed Aikiko talking with the medic. Walking over, Hisoka waved a hand in the air, "Akiashiro," she said to get the neko's attention. "The Shosho has asked me to debrief you." She said, "she said you're acting strangely."

Bridge

Hanako watched the screens to make sure everyone made it back on board, and once they had, she gave the order to Natsumi to approach the adrift Yui-class scout. The ship appeared to be mostly, but not completely, powered down and some of the escape pods were missing. "The scout is not responding to communications attempts with its computer," Hanako noticed. "Natsumi, take us to the scout's position and dock with it. We have some options. There are two hatches on the top of the scout and a small door hatch on each side. Either would work for us. We can use our dorsal main passage hatch or the Eucharis' extending docking tube, which is probably preferable. Go ahead and dock."

Tankyusha's readings showed no sign of aether generator usage on the scout ship. Its engines and weapons were not radiating any significant heat or energy. Scanning the interior proved difficult due to the ship's Zesuaium-armored hull. There was significant damage to rear of the ship's continuum distortion engines and the rear shuttle bay door appeared to be blown off. There was also some damage to the rear armor.

"Cadet Stark," Hanako said, "What do you make of those damage marks? Positron tunneling cannons?"

Bridge.

"Coudn't hazard a guess, I have never used one so I don't know what they would do to a target. And since Mr. Science there has fully taken over the sensors I haven't been able to do a full scan of the target beyond marking it so that if we do have to fire on it, its already locked on."

Antonia sat there looking over her shoulder at the Shosho.

Bridge

Natsumi nodded. "Bringing us in" she said and went to work. She tapped in her commands, edging the Eucharis forward with her thrusters.

As they closed, she made additional adjustments, rotating the gunship and matching them to the movement of the Yui class scout vessel, lining up the main docking tunnel and hatch with one of the scout's topside airlocks. It took some minutes and a lot of fine tuning to perfectly match rotation, velocity and direction with the derelict, but soon enough she had them matched and closed in to a few meters distance, holding them there.

Satisfied with their positioning, Natsumi extended the docking tunnel, locking it in place and sealing it to the Yui's hull.

"We are docked," Natsumi reported now that the task was complete.

Aikiko looked at Hisoka when she heard Hisoka speak. She schooled her face into that stoic expression the day they first met. "Mmmmmm?" nodded at Hisoka to continue as she looked at the Medic, "I'll be back." Turned to face Hisoka. Looking at her, waiting.

Bridge

Tankyusha tilted his head to one side and frowned faintly. "My intent was not to monopolize the ship's sensor systems. You are welcome to use them as needed - most of my operations only take a few seconds. If I have reduced your effectiveness in some way, I apologize." The android felt uncomfortable as confusion settled in. The Captain had ordered him to man those systems. Had he offended her in some way? He couldn't help but feel as though the other member of the bridge felt the same way. And then, a new emotion: Shame.

He stifled it. It wasn't going to improve things. Instead, he decided to be optimistic, "If I can somehow support you, Cadet Stark, please let me know."

The seat shifted as he settled back into it and stared at the craft on the main screen. His desire to learn more about the cause of the scout ship's demise was like an itch he couldn't scratch. Leave this one to the rest of the bridge team. You can't be an effective team alone.

He really wanted to scratch that itch.